Manatt Partner Discusses New Application of Decades-Old Stark Law With Modern Healthcare
"Stark Threat on Medicaid"
Modern Healthcare
August 10, 2013 - Manatt's Robert Fabrikant, a litigation partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., office, was quoted in a Modern Healthcare article on the recent application of a federal ban on physician conflicts of interest, known as the Stark law, to Medicaid claims.
For 20 years, Modern Healthcare reports, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has focused Stark law enforcement exclusively on Medicare.
Recently CMS said the law does apply to Medicaid, even though it has never published final rules on how it would work, and the U.S. Justice Department is moving ahead by citing the previously unenforced law in a Florida lawsuit seeking repayment of Medicaid claims for Stark violations.
Private whistle-blowers began pressing for clarity on the issue because a 1993 law applying Stark to Medicaid remains on the books and could potentially put millions of dollars in their pockets, according to the publication.
"The impact is huge," Fabrikant told Modern Healthcare. "There is a very substantial area of exposure that just didn't exist before." He noted that large Medicaid providers now may have a harder time convincing potential buyers in a hospital transaction that they don't have potential legal exposure under Stark.